Monday, October 19, 2009

New debate, old fucking news.

I think it's time for some good old fashioned discussion, so this time we'll be chatting each other up about the healthcare debate. I'll begin by throwing this out there: it's pathetically stupid to even call it a debate. Cuba, poorer than dusty shite, can afford healthcare for all it's citizens but we're too strapped? How much did we give those bastard banks for their bailout again? And why can we still afford two wars and the damn Pentagon?

Please remember, I've already made up my mind and I can give you the answers to all those rhetorical questions. I want to read what you think...

The last couple of episodes of This American Life were on this subject, and I thought they added a lot of subtlety to the conversation, at least for me. They didn't change my mind -- I'm still for single-payer, universal health care, having used it and seen that it does work -- but they went into some aspects of the issue that I don't often see handled well when speaking to the general populace.

2. The government takes responsibility for teaching everyone financial responsibility and make it something that needs to be passed to graduate from high school. Curriculum for this class would include: insuring your newborn to maximum of your ability, including life, health, disability, long term care, critical illness and yes, even annuities and other health and life insurance lines.

5. Also, government takes responsibility to teach every student and require them to pass a truly effective health & fitness curriculum during high school.

4. The insurance industry develops health insurance policies that rate similarly to a whole life policy: the rate stays the same from the day you purchase the policy to the day you buy the policy to the day you die. Probably extremely difficult to develop, but it's still one of my conditions.

5. For a couple years after the insurance companies develop these truly well rated health policies, they grandfather all the acceptable applicants without individualized exclusions for medical histories.

Only really after all the above have been satisfied will I argue against universal healthcare in the United States.

Long story short, though: I'll probably always be for universal healthcare. Just make sure it's better than Medicare!

I did hear a spot on NPR from one of the folks at TAL. It expounded to some depth about prescription coverage and the bizarre conflict between health insurance companies and big pharma. Not surprisingly we, as the common folk have become the footsoldiers in this battle...all unwittingly provided for by the USPTO. Very interesting and enough to make me fantasize about socialism.

Wow, Jesse. That's a pretty in-depth philosophy on insurance. You're still in the industry, right? Maybe you could give us a little insight on how insurance companies seem to be making things worse, when the free market was supposed to prevent all this from happening.

New condition that would need to be met before I went against universal healthcare:

6. End protective tariffs on imported goods

I have no idea where money for protective tariffs go. If they continue to be charged, then I think they should be funneled toward social programs and universal healthcare.

Yes, I understand that protective tariffs can be important for developing industry in our country. . .which can provide jobs for citizens. . .except jobs get outsourced to other countries!

So if the lower and middling classes have to pay high costs for goods because it costs that much to produce them by US companies, than the charges to imports that keep the costs of those products artificially high should then be used to help the people who face the real cost on those high priced products.